Monument with Work

The Monument with Work (in Dutch: Monument aan of Arbeid ) to Brussels is located in the district of Laeken, with the entry of large the basin Vergote of the wearing of Brussels.

The monument set up by the architect Mario Knauer in 1930, emphasizes five bronze sculptures and four Bas-relief S, works of the sculptor Constantin Meunier (1831-1905) who as of the Années 1890 works with this project which will be however built only after its death.

Industrial Belgium of the end of the 19th century provides the topic of this monument. In front of the monument is placed Maternity , a bronze appearing a woman and her children symbolizing the future. At the three other angles are placed, the Ancestor , old man representing the past and the tradition, the Minor for coal mining and the Blacksmith for the metallurgy. Overcoming the unit, the Sower personifies the work of the ground and the production.

The low-reliefs on the sides have as a subject, Industry , the Mine , the Harvest and the Dockers .

The subjects are covered in the style naturalist, giving a show of force, hardness and dignity. Work is idealized. Paradoxically, the sculptor, strongly marked a few years earlier by the terrible work conditions of time, facts of its subjects heroes of time, idealizing a not very enviable condition. The power that the characters release inspires more the respect than the will to improve the statute of the workers or the compassion for undergone misery.

The site chosen for the construction of the monument is symbolic system, at the edge of the basin of unloading of the barges which bring their goods coming from the mines and of the factories of the south via the channel of Charleroi or of the port of Antwerp in north.

It was entirely restored in the Années 2000.

Internal bond

Constantin Meunier (film 1960)

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